How many physicians didn't respond to your shadowing request?

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Started emailing several physicians in my hometown about a month ago for a summer shadowing possibility. Just emailed the 9th one the other day. Not a single response. Did this happen to you as well?
 
Not unusual.

Just wait until they start responding. If it's anything like my experience, the first 10 who say ANYTHING will merely tell you it's impossible and suggest you look elsewhere.
 
I mailed letters to 20+ physicians in my area, and only 2 responded.
 
Not uncommon at all. The key is to be persistent and keep emailing different physicians. I had more luck with those affiliated with academic centers. Eventually someone will respond.

Also try contacting your college's pre-med office to see if they have a list of physicians available for shadowing. You could just volunteer during the school year. Good luck!
 
None, but I think that the lack of response may be a regional thing. I live in Denver, and every doctor has been super cool. I've shadowed an ER doctor, a pediatric trauma surgeon, a pediatric oncologist, and a neurosurgeon, and it took me one email each time.

I've definitely heard that doctors in the mountain states and the midwest are much more receptive to cold calls and emails than doctors on the coast, but that may be my bias showing through.

Have you tried emailing and/or calling the clerical staff? A lot of time, talking to one of the administrators in a practice can help. My initial contact with the neurosurgery team was with their receptionist. I asked him who I should email about shadowing and he helped me out a lot. They know who the older docs that may be too busy or don't like teaching are, vs the doctors that like to share their passion in their specialty.
 
I would try cold calling. Emails are easy to ignore.
 
How did you find the physicians email address? I've been searching around the internet for quite a while now and can't seem to find any who put their email address as a primary or secondary contact information.
 
About 90+% either did not respond or responded in the negative. I eventually was able to shadow with two docs within the same practice group (cold called them and spoke to manager, who set me up) and with a doc for whom my parent does some work. If you have any connections, that is usually the easiest way to go.
 
aflamp said:
None, but I think that the lack of response may be a regional thing. I live in Denver, and every doctor has been super cool. I've shadowed an ER doctor, a pediatric trauma surgeon, a pediatric oncologist, and a neurosurgeon, and it took me one email each time.

I've definitely heard that doctors in the mountain states and the midwest are much more receptive to cold calls and emails than doctors on the coast, but that may be my bias showing through.

Have you tried emailing and/or calling the clerical staff? A lot of time, talking to one of the administrators in a practice can help. My initial contact with the neurosurgery team was with their receptionist. I asked him who I should email about shadowing and he helped me out a lot. They know who the older docs that may be too busy or don't like teaching are, vs the doctors that like to share their passion in their specialty.
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Some states may be different.

Apparently it is almost impossible in washington because of fears of having an untrained "observer" anywhere near a healthcare setting.
 
When starting to shadow I secretly found the emails of 30 doctors at a big university hospital. 4 of them got back to me and without fail each asked how I got their email (it wasn't too hard).
 
Probably 20 MDs with 1 success and almost 35 DOs with 3 successes. A combination of emailing and calling.


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The worst was the various lists of "physicians willing to have premed students shadow" that proved to be absolutely worthless. Some lists from my college, some from the state med school, some from a DO website and all worthless.


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Maybe one of the problems is how you emailed them? I usually attach a CV to first let then know that I'm a committed premed and have other experience. It's a small world, so I always include previous docs I shadowed. A cardiologist I shadowed knew one of the surgeons I shadowed, which served as a talking point. Things like that. If emailing doesn't work, you could always dress up and enter clinics and ask the from desk or enter hospitals and ask for the education department. But again this may vary state to state. PM if you need additional help! I'm happy to!
 
Literally ~100. Then I got an Ivy League school email address because I was doing research there. All of a sudden my email response rates skyrocketed. Doctors are jerks
 
I remember one HIV doc who responded and was like "Sure. Are you interested in going into HIV medicine"
I was like "not exactly, I'm trying to learn about all the different specialties. When's a good time for me to come?"
Then he stopped responding and ignored all my emails thereafter

To be fair, I was only trying to pad my resume but still it was rude of him to drop me like that lol
 
chillaxbro said:
Literally ~100. Then I got an Ivy League school email address because I was doing research there. All of a sudden my email response rates skyrocketed. Doctors are jerks
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chillaxbro said:
I remember one HIV doc who responded and was like "Sure. Are you interested in going into HIV medicine"
I was like "not exactly, I'm trying to learn about all the different specialties. When's a good time for me to come?"
Then he stopped responding and ignored all my emails thereafter

To be fair, I was only trying to pad my resume but still it was rude of him to drop me like that lol
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Things like this really make me worry about the future of medicine
 
My college career center has a list of alumni who are willing to take on shadows- see if your school has something similar
 
haaaaaaaaaaveyoumetted said:
My college career center has a list of alumni who are willing to take on shadows- see if your school has something similar
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Similarly, my undergrad has a general alumni connection site (that both current undergrads and alums have access to) - you can sort through enrolled alums by profession, and I was able to find someone to shadow through that portal. Does your school have any type of alumni site?
 
Probably not an option, but do you or your family personally know any doctors? I was 3/3 with that route.
 
Finding a doctor willing to shadow you is hard. I made an excel spreadsheet of MD/DO's in my area and for around every 40 I called, one was open to me taking up space in their office for a few days.
 
Most of the doctors did not respond when I cold called or emailed. I found doctors to shadow through my friends/coworkers/etc. It helps when someone who know you asks in your behalf.
 
I got to ~30 non-responsive doctors before I stopped cold-calling and tried utilizing my connections.

All 6 out of 7 doctors that previously worked with coworkers of mine did not respond. 1 said yes but only because she was married to my coworker.

4 out of 5 of the doctors I work with said no. 1 said yes because I agreed to dog-sit for him.

Shadowing. Never again.
 
I would suggest sending letters via snail mail. I wrote a few paragraphs about myself and why I specifically wanted to shadow someone in their field. I had about a 33% success rate this way (contacted maybe 15 doctors, was invited to shadow 5 of them).
 
I've found cold emailing to work for me, as a nontraditional applicant with no doctors in my immediate family. I have about 40 hours now, spread between 6 or 7 doctors.

I would say for every 8 emails or so, one doctor would respond. I made sure to include my CV and wrote a very nice, detailed email, so perhaps that is why I've gotten a relatively good response rate. Do I wish it was higher or that I had personal connections? Absolutely. But I'm grateful that cold emailing has worked out so far for me (I'm scheduled for another 10 hours with one surgeon and will probably email another few doctors so that I end up around 60 hours by the time June rolls around).

I will also mention that I generally emailed knowing that it would probably take at least a month before I'd be able to get in with the doctor (the one I shadowed this morning, I actually set up back in January!!). So, being flexible about dates would be helpful for you if any doctors respond.
 
If you are going to email, target doctors who graduated in the last 10 years and actually have a very personal idea of the competitive level of pre-med. They are much more likely to appreciate your response, and are definitely more likely to accept you. Ask doctors at academic centers. Also if you just send an email like "Hi, my name is X, I go to X university, I am in X year, I am interested in your specialty b/c X, can I shadow you" Every sinlge pre-med probably sends emails like that. Make your more personalized. In the email(or phone call whihc is better), just mentioning the fact that you are HIPAA compliant, and/or are familiar with confidentiality laws, and some general principles of medical ethics will put you leaps and bounds above other shadowing candidates. I took a course in Medical Ethics, and I cannot evne count how many shadowing experiences I indirectly got from that. Physicians aren't necessarily unwilling to allow you to shadow them, rather they are scared of you violating things. Also, "Foot in the door phenomenon), once you present the fact that you have shadowed before, that also helps the physician. Know when to shut up, when to speak up, be friendly, personable. There are lots of things to help yourself. If you go to a department list on an academic hospital website, ask younger doctors towards the back of the list because they typically get the least amount of "applicants" toward shadowing. Learn the tricks of the game.
 
None. Because I grew a pair and went to their office. Certainly I was rejected by quite a few, but at least I got a response. How bad do you want it?
 
Most of them responded. Even to cold calls. But probably just because I go to Hopkins undergrad and we very supportive connections with the med school for research+shadowing+volunteering....until it comes to admissions hahaha
 
Try inquiring at teaching hospitals and the offices in that general vicinity. They are usually more accepting of shadowers. Once you get shadow one doctor, ask them if they could get you in touch with other doctors.
 
This is why shadowing is a silly requirement, the majority of doctors either don't want you there, or can't have you there because they already have a ton of medical students and residents.

I called over 200 and ended up shadowing someone 800 miles away just to satisfy a physician-letter-from-someone-I've-shadowed requirement at my school.
 
None of them refused me, but I mostly shadowed physicians with whom I already had a connection (i.e. physicians I had previously been a patient of).
 
redferrari said:
None. Because I grew a pair and went to their office. Certainly I was rejected by quite a few, but at least I got a response. How bad do you want it?
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Chill with the insults bro. As I said, it's in my hometown.
 
panda16 said:
None of them refused me, but I mostly shadowed physicians with whom I already had a connection (i.e. physicians I had previously been a patient of).
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Even my personal physician refused me
 
Literally no physician has refused me, and I've shadowed several.
 
panda16 said:
None of them refused me, but I mostly shadowed physicians with whom I already had a connection (i.e. physicians I had previously been a patient of).
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WHAT? Seriously?

I asked every single physician I was a patient of, and EVERY ONE told me it would be "unprofessional" for me to shadow them.

...


Maybe this is a regional thing?
 
Spinach Dip said:
WHAT? Seriously?

I asked every single physician I was a patient of, and EVERY ONE told me it would be "unprofessional" for me to shadow them.

...


Maybe this is a regional thing?
Click to expand...
Perhaps! I mean whenever we would talk when I was a pt they would ask what I want to do with my life and I would always say Doctor. They would respond positively and say "if you ever need anything let me know" etc so me asking to shadow for a few days wasn't too difficult. I'm from the Midwest and asked in my hometown which does not have a major premed university in it though so that probably made a huge difference. The majority of them also offered to write me letters of rec if I needed but I didn't ask them for it because it wouldn't be that strong at the end of the day
 
I found that what stood in my way with shadowing was hospital administrators, not physicians.

I actually had probably about 10 doctors come back and say yes (out of the maybe 40 I emailed, lol), but I was only able to spend time with 2 of them because they organized it all with me personally. Many doctors would connect me to the someone in their department to work out scheduling, but then that person would pull out a bunch of rules about why I could not come (against hospital policy, etc.). It was really frustrating because I am a volunteer at the hospital, so I had medical clearance, background check, all that good stuff.

Oh well. I am very thankful for the two that had me!
 
narvik2016 said:
I found that what stood in my way with shadowing was hospital administrators, not physicians.

I actually had probably about 10 doctors come back and say yes (out of the maybe 40 I emailed, lol), but I was only able to spend time with 2 of them because they organized it all with me personally. Many doctors would connect me to the someone in their department to work out scheduling, but then that person would pull out a bunch of rules about why I could not come (against hospital policy, etc.). It was really frustrating because I am a volunteer at the hospital, so I had medical clearance, background check, all that good stuff.

Oh well. I am very thankful for the two that had me!
Click to expand...
I also had this issue with a physician who agreed to let me shadow her, but the hospital policies and procedure was so freaking long that I almost didn't get clearance in time to shadow her.
 
The thing that helped me was going to my university's health clinic and asking the doctors if I could shadow them. I knew they most likely would say know but one doctor told me about her colleague and I contacted him and have been shadowing since.
 
Even with family and personal connections 1/3 of the doctors never responded. About another third said that they couldn't accommodate me.
 
We have accommodated 100% of pre-meds who we know who ask to shadow. I have even started offering to our scribes/researcher fellows to spend some time outside of their work with our resident teams/attendings on the wards, clinic and in the OR. We are generally pretty invested in our students and enjoy sharing what we do on a daily basis with them.

On the other hand, we are far less accommodating to people cold calling. It is expensive and time consuming to have people shadow us. I know because I am the one who organizes shadowing in our department. The number of bureaucratic hurdles is quite large. There are always financial considerations (background checks, badging, etc) if you do things properly. It is also a burden on our physicians to have someone tailing them. While we are (for the most part) uniformly interested in sharing what we do, it is tiring. Depending on your level, from intern to attending, you are working 60 to 110 hours/week. You also have administrative responsibilities, research responsibilities, etc. We all feel somewhat responsible as we are hosting shadows when they are around. It is hard to get super excited about the cold calling students who often times have a massive sense of entitlement. We take some of them on, usually the ones that are friendly/nice/easy to contact and have very few bureaucratic hurdles. But, the vast majority have an expectation that we will set everything up for them and then work on their time tables when they provide nothing in return. Again, we do it because we want to, but when attitude becomes any bit of an issue our drive to help drops through the floor.
 
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